You're on the right track. My approach is to use metering and placement of the highlights to determine exposure. It's much like exposure for black and white but using the highlights instead of the shadows, as I do when shooting film.
Kozan wrote:
My idea of "right" exposure has changed over the years. I used to get Professional Photographer magazine and for the longest time the images on the cover seemed under exposed. If I shot the cover and checked the histogram, the exposure would be two to three stops underexposed.
The take away, for me, is that one should expose to the right on the histogram but print to suit the mood of the image. Does that make sense?